Travelling again Part 10

What a waste of a week! It has rained almost every day and has been cold and windy. Quite horrid in fact. On Monday when we went to replenish our groceries, we bought a small outdoor thermometer to hang on the verandah pillar that I can see through the study window as I sit typing at the computer. When we peered out on Wednesday morning at about 9 am, we felt quite justified in feeling cold, as the thin red line had only risen as far as 6°. However, there were things that we could do around the house, one of them being to install new lights and mirrors in two of the bathrooms, a task that seriously tested Mr Fix-it’s ingenuity as his only tools were a set of spanners (totally unnecessary and quite useless in this case), two rechargeable electric drills (neither of which held a charge for long enough to finish the job) and a multi-purpose tool known as a Leatherman. The job was soon done, though, and even if I say it myself, all looks rather good. Also during the week, the car’s oil was changed, another task to test ingenuity. Being a really little car, it has really little ground clearance but one needs to be able to get underneath it to drain the old oil. Propping it up was not the only problem, it was the constant on-and-off rain. Eventually the idea came to mind to run the car in under that part of the roof which had the widest eaves, but of course, it was then almost up against the wall and getting in underneath was almost impossible. However, as they say in the old country, ‘n Boer maak a plan, and the oil eventually was changed and a new filter fitted, and Goldie was all ready to go off for the required bi-annual road test. Happily, the work was worth the effort and the car passed its test so we are all legal again for another two years. The rest of the week was spent idly reading and watching television; enjoying a delicious meal with friends and having another friend over to share a cup of coffee with us. We have also been planning our route for later in this week when we travel to Breil-sur-Roya near the Italian border. Hopefully, by this time next week we will have far more to tell you about